[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 83 (Wednesday, May 17, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1693-S1697]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, I rise today to again speak on the 
multifaceted crisis that has defined our southern border and how the 
inaction and misleading rhetoric from President Biden and his 
administration has only exacerbated the continued fallout our country 
is experiencing.
  Since the beginning of his tenure in the White House, President 
Biden's trademark has been border chaos with over 6.3 million illegal 
border crossings under his watch. Actions do speak louder than words, 
and President Biden continues to prove that his priorities are miles 
and miles away from the southern border. He has only visited the 
southern border once since becoming President. He has supported funding 
cuts to the Department of Homeland Security in his recent budget 
proposal; and that Department is charged with securing the border.
  Our Border Patrol agents deserve needed support from the 
administration who has laid the crisis they face squarely at their 
feet. In this past week, according to the U.S. Border Patrol, there 
have been 67,759 apprehensions, 15,780 approximate ``get-aways,'' 179 
pounds of meth, 56 pounds of fentanyl, and 34 pounds of cocaine--all 
seized at our southern border in just 168 hours.
  With our Border Patrol stretched inconceivably thin with little 
support from the administration, it is hard to fathom the true amount 
of illegal crossings, human trafficking, and illegal drugs that are 
currently entering our country through the southern border.
  On top of all this, on Sunday, a person on the U.S. terror watchlist 
was arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border crossing in San Diego. This 
further proves the national security implications regarding this border 
crisis and the message displayed to the world about the State of our 
ports of entry.
  The impact of the unprecedented amount of drugs entering through our 
southern border is certainly not lost on me either, nor anyone in this 
body. My State of West Virginia has seen the impact of this crisis 
directly, and it has created irreversible scars on our communities.
  I just mentioned 56 pounds of fentanyl has been seized just last week 
alone. That is enough fentanyl to kill 12 million Americans. Recent 
data from the CDC shows that between 2016 and 2021, fentanyl overdoses 
have risen 279 percent in this country. Those between the ages of 24 
through 44 have the highest overdose rates, and those involved 
fentanyl.
  Through conversations I have had on this topic with the Biden 
administration officials, I have found their answers to be highly 
insufficient. This is a crisis that is killing a generation, and we 
know that these drugs are flowing across our southern border. The 
administration needs a better answer, and they must swiftly act to stop 
this killer.
  Now as the title 42 authority has expired, it has added to the 
confusion on the southern border. The Biden administration is trying to 
reset a new normal based on failed policies as an attempt to redefine 
and hide their border failures. Trust me, the American people are not 
fooled by the recent victory lap taken by the Biden administration or 
their effort to claim success or progress. To the Biden administration, 
what they consider low numbers still far exceed the daily average of 
the prior administration. In fact, if illegal crossings continue at the 
levels that the administration is tallying, this White House is on 
track to break the previous record they set last year for the number of 
illegal immigrants caught at the border. This is not lost on the 
American people.
  Unfortunately, this is a habit we have kind of seen from this 
President. We saw similar messaging antics from the administration 
regarding gas prices when they touted decreases that still put us above 
the average before President Biden even took office. The same goes for 
inflation, which saw record increases only after Democrats' 
supercharged spending. Yes, it came down, but it is still way, way too 
high.
  Mitigating the border crisis is an ongoing effort and one we have to 
monitor closely. For example, will the administration's actions of the 
past week create a massive backlog of asylum claims? What does that do 
to our system? It only adds to the issue of interior enforcement, 
something the Biden administration has clearly never prioritized.
  Despite the President's too-little, too-late action, our border 
remains open. I know with certainty that once someone enters our 
country, the chances of them being expelled are very, very low. As we 
move forward, the situation of the border needs to be tightly watched, 
and it needs to be tracked over time if it deviates based on many 
different factors and changes to policies that we are currently 
experiencing. But above all else, we have to remain committed to 
policies that do secure the border, policies that protect our 
communities.
  I don't know how these border communities are doing it. I really 
don't. Policies that support our Border Patrol officers and policies 
that prevent the unprecedented humanitarian tragedy that has become the 
custom over the past several years--whether it is the drug influx, the 
human trafficking, and just the human sorrow that we see that this has 
generated.
  My Republican colleagues and I remain committed to this mission, and 
I encourage the Biden administration to do the same.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I am here today to join my colleague 
from West Virginia and others in, again, calling on the administration 
to secure our southern border.
  Last Thursday, I traveled to Brownsville, TX, with my colleagues to 
show support for the Border Patrol agents and see firsthand the 
situation at the border as title 42 expires. I traveled repeatedly to 
the southern border; and each time I go, I see more and more people 
coming across illegally.
  I have been to McAllen; I have been to Del Rio; I have been to Eagle 
Pass; I have been to El Paso, Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala, Colombia--
both sides of the border. As I go each time, more and more people are 
crossing the border illegally.
  In the 3 days leading up to the end of title 42, Border Patrol 
reported 10,000-plus encounters each day and almost 83,000 for the 
week. In the first 6 months of fiscal year 2023, CBP encountered more 
than 1.5 million individuals--that is 6 months--1.5 million individuals 
in 6 months. That compares to about 2\1/2\ million crossings illegally 
last year. That means, at the pace we are on, it will be more than 3 
million coming illegally this year.
  This truly is a crisis, and it is one that has been caused by the 
Biden administration's unwillingness to enforce the law and reinstate 
policies that have been shown very clearly to work in the last 
administration.

[[Page S1694]]

  In Brownsville, we saw the crisis firsthand. And we met with Border 
Patrol professionals who told us what needs to happen to stop the flow 
of illegal immigration. And we can get a handle on this right now if 
the Biden administration will simply enforce the law. We know this from 
our Border Patrol professionals, the experts on the frontline. They are 
the ones telling us this. That includes enforcing the migrant 
protection protocols--MPP--or the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy, which 
would require people seeking asylum at the southern border to wait in 
Mexico while their case is adjudicated, and enforcing the Safe Third 
Country protocols--again, as the prior administration did--so that 
individuals seeking asylum from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and 
other countries must wait for their claim to be adjudicated before they 
come into the country.
  But instead of requiring individuals seeking asylum to remain in 
Mexico or to submit an asylum claim in the first safe country they 
cross into, the Biden administration is creating a demand pull for 
these individuals because they not only allow them to cross illegally 
and come into the country, but they allow them to stay in the country 
illegally, and they also provide a work permit and benefits.
  So when Secretary Mayorkas says: Oh, the border is closed, that is 
not the message that goes to South America. And, now, actually, more 
than 100 countries where people are coming across our border illegally 
from more than 100 different countries. The message that the coyotes 
and others tell the people that they are trafficking across the border 
is: We will get you into the country. You will be able to stay. You 
will get a work permit and you will get benefits.
  So, of course, they are going to come, and they continue to come. And 
what the Biden administration is doing is they just process them 
faster. They just process them faster. With the expiration of title 42, 
Alejandro Mayorkas says he is enforcing title 8, but he is not.
  Here is what he is doing: When individuals come across the border 
illegally, initially, he is saying, under title 8: Well, you have to 
have an asylum claim, and that has to be adjudicated; so you can't 
stay.
  All that individual has to do is say: I want to appeal that, and they 
get a preliminary hearing. They are given a phone number. They don't 
even have to go to the hearing. They are given a phone number. They 
call the court, and they say: OK. I am appealing the claim; I am here 
for asylum. And they are given an alien identification number, they get 
a work permit, and they get benefits. They don't have to go to the 
court. Their hearing is just calling up on the phone. Then they are 
scheduled for a court date 3 years, 5 years down the line while they 
are in the country. That is not enforcing title 8.
  And that is why more and more people are coming. That is why 2\1/2\-
plus million came last year, and there will be 3 million-plus coming 
this year.
  What are you seeing around the country? Now in New York, they are 
putting migrants who come here illegally in gymnasiums in schools. What 
is it, 20 schools? And Mayor Adams complains about Governor Abbott 
sending people up to him. Well, Mayor Adams should call the White House 
because the White House has sent up 10 times as many people as Governor 
Abbott has. So maybe he is complaining about the wrong person. But that 
is what is going on.
  How about fentanyl? How about the drugs that are pouring into our 
country illegally, affecting every State? How about human trafficking? 
How about human trafficking? How about all the things that are 
happening to these people as they are coming up here in the hands of 
the coyotes? How about the people who don't have $8,000 to $12,000 to 
pay the coyotes, to pay the cartels to come here? What do you suppose 
happens when they get here, that the coyotes and cartels say: Oh, that 
is fine, don't worry about paying back that $8,000 or that $12,000--not 
only for you but for your kids. Or maybe they are indentured servants 
until they can pay off that debt.
  And how do they pay off that debt? What do they have to do? What are 
they bound to when they are up here? That is the kind of human 
suffering that is being created by this border policy, and the reality 
is it can end right now. It can end right now.
  The Biden administration says: Well, Congress needs to pass a law. 
Well, what good does it do for Congress to pass a law if the Biden 
administration won't enforce the laws they have right now? We are a 
compassionate country. We allow 1 million people--1 million people--to 
come here every year, legally. But we have got to enforce our border, 
and that is not being done. And every American needs to understand that 
the Biden administration doesn't need more tools or more laws to secure 
the border. They have the tools. They have the law to do it. They just 
won't; they want an open border.
  Border security is national security. You are seeing that impact. You 
are seeing people come from more than 100 different countries. A lot of 
those people aren't vetted, and that doesn't even count the ``got-
aways,'' the people who cross between the ports of entry whom our 
Border Patrol professionals don't have time to stop because they are so 
busy processing more and more and more migrants that come here 
illegally under the Biden administration's policies.
  It is way past time to end the border crisis that the Biden 
administration has created. Border security is national security.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. MARSHALL. Madam President, ``The border is not open.''
  ``The border is not open.'' That is what DHS Secretary Mayorkas told 
the American people repeatedly. I guess that is pretty easy to say when 
you are sitting in your office in Washington, DC, but I rise to tell 
the truth to the American people.
  Just recently, I led a group of Senators to the epicenter of this 
crisis in Brownsville, TX, on the eve title 42 was being lifted. Why 
Brownsville, you might ask, because that is where the cartel had moved 
the mass migration to. I reckon that was the easiest way to get all the 
people from Venezuela that they had recruited to come to America; that 
was the easiest, the most economical route to get them to the border 
was from Venezuela to Brownsville, TX.
  I have to tell you, it is worse than I expected. The scene was bleak; 
the morale was at an all-time low. And there was no sign of this crisis 
ending anytime soon. At least that is what was going on, on our side of 
the border. On the other side of the border, these migrants were 
celebrating. They were having a party. The worst part of their journey 
was over.
  We toured Camp Monument. Now, Camp Monument was a park just weeks 
before, but the Border Patrol had come in there and set up an emergency 
command post.
  Now, again, the DHS Secretary is telling us the border isn't open, 
but this is what the Border Patrol told us: Just the day before, 11,000 
illegal migrants had been recorded at this location alone and more than 
3,000 ``got-aways'' the same day--3,000 ``got-aways.'' If you put those 
two together, that is the size of my hometown, Great Bend, America.
  Now, we saw this week with the arrest of the Afghani on the Terrorist 
Watchlist in California, these ``got-aways'' undoubtedly include 
terrorists, convicted criminals, and the cartels' drug smugglers.
  In fact, something, again, new on this trip--this was my fourth trip 
to the border--something new, they were averaging 90 Chinese military-
aged nationalists crossing in the Rio Grande Valley every day, 90 
Chinese nationalists every day crossing our border.
  Probably the saddest thing I have heard about from the Border Patrol 
is they shared the horrific situation and the repeated sexual assault 
young women are enduring to come here. They compared it to a never-
ending cycle of ``sex slavery''--that was their term--sex slavery by 
the cartels. In fact, the cartel had made $13 billion last year in the 
sex trade industry. And they told us that these young ladies enter a 
lifetime of debt to their criminal traffickers. So many other people 
turned into indentured servants.
  These smugglers are also bringing in lethal fentanyl that is 
poisoning our children, 300 young adults dying every day in America 
from fentanyl poisoning brought across our southern border.

[[Page S1695]]

  The data we received--and the briefing was given to us by the Border 
Patrol, by local law enforcement, and the CBP--do not reflect a border 
that is closed, far, far from being closed. It is a border that has 
been erased by failed leadership in the White House.
  Under the current circumstances, only 10 percent of the Border Patrol 
agents are actually tasked with securing the border, only 10 percent of 
them are doing the job they were hired to do. The other officers, they 
are tasked with running the refugee camp, acting as nurses and social 
workers.
  But it didn't have to be this way; it doesn't have to be this way. On 
every trip, I have asked the Border Patrol: What do you need? And in 
past trips, they have talked about, ``We need more doctors; we need 
more dentists; we need more help, more cooks.''
  But this time, they didn't ask for more officers or resources. What 
they specifically asked for were policy changes from this 
administration. They asked for policy changes from this administration. 
These are people on the ground. These are the people who have been 
doing it--again, multigenerational officers whose fathers and 
grandparents had patrolled these same borders. They asked for policy 
changes.
  Secretary Mayorkas has stripped them--the Border Patrol--of the tools 
they need to secure our border. What they asked was to reinstate the 
``Remain in Mexico'' policy and end catch-and-release. It is that 
simple.
  This could be all accomplished with the President's pen. He created 
this crisis. He can end it.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
  Mr. YOUNG. Madam President, ``much better than you all expected.'' 
That is what President Biden said when asked about the conditions at 
the border after the expiration of title 42. ``Much better than you all 
expected.''
  At the end of a week that saw a record 10,000 illegal crossings a 
day, he says, ``much better than you all expected.''
  Those were just the ones that were stopped by the U.S. Customs and 
Border Protection. The President's statement is clearly disconnected 
from the on-the-ground reality at our border. Everyone knows that. And 
as far as I can tell, the Biden administration's policy, when it comes 
to the southern border, is largely to do the opposite of what the 
previous administration did.
  This is the ``Costanza'' policy of border security. Whatever the 
previous President did, do the opposite. Within his first 100 days in 
office, President Biden stopped construction of the border wall, but he 
didn't stop there. He halted deportations, but he didn't stop there. He 
suspended the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy. As a result of these and 
other actions, there have been at least 6.4 million--6.4 million--
illegal border crossings at the southern border since the President 
assumed office.
  Now, to put that in perspective--and this is just the number of 
people whom we have seen and been able to track come across the border 
illegally, so we know there are far more--but I represent a State, the 
great State of Indiana, where the population is 6.8 million.
  That is a whole lot of people. Since 2021, hundreds of thousands of 
children have been trafficked across the southern border. Eighty-five 
thousand unaccompanied children are now missing. Last year, overworked 
and underappreciated Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 12,000 
illegal immigrants who had already been convicted of a crime. Again, 
just the ones we have been able to apprehend.
  This year, this year so far, those agents have stopped 82 people, 
according to my most recent count, from crossing the border, and they 
are on the terror watchlist.
  Fentanyl smuggled across the border from Mexico is now the leading 
cause of death for Americans between ages 18 and 49. Record numbers of 
migrants are dying, swept away in the currents of the Rio Grande. So 
many, in fact, that law enforcement has to keep refrigerated trucks at 
the ready to store the drowned bodies.
  The administration pretends that its lax border policy is somehow 
humane. It is the benighted, ultra-MAGA conservatives, the mean 
Republicans, in this vision who are inhumane.
  Well, I have to say, swamping our law enforcement officers, 
overwhelming our resources, allowing lethal drugs to spread through our 
communities, not discouraging migrants from a deadly journey to the 
border, this is inhumane.
  And saying so and demanding a measure of border security is not anti-
immigrant. It is pro-American.
  These are not Republican talking points; these are the sentiments of 
regular Americans. The failure to plan for the end of title 42 to 
enforce our immigration laws to secure the southern border is a 
disaster. Americans, no matter their political party, know it. But the 
President of the United States does not seem to understand.
  In New York City, where illegal migrants have displaced homeless 
veterans in hotels, Mayor Eric Adams said: ``The President and the 
White House have failed this city.''
  The truth is, when it comes to the border, the President and the 
White House have failed this country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I am pleased to join with my colleagues 
to talk about a topic that I have talked about many times before on the 
floor of the U.S. Senate. Obviously, coming from a border State, the 
humanitarian, the public safety crisis occurring at our border, which 
has raged for the last 2 years under this President, has finally made 
every State a border State, every city a border city because the entire 
Nation is feeling the impact of the open border policies of the Biden 
administration because migrants are being shipped to places like 
Chicago, New York, Washington, DC. And so the mayors are saying: Whoa, 
we can't take this, even though border communities in Texas have 
encountered 5 million migrants during the Biden administration.
  (Mr. REED assumed the Chair.)
  I am sympathetic, but there is no sympathy. And, actually, we don't 
really want sympathy; we want action to deal with this influx of 
humanity that will soon become a tsunami.
  As I said, since the President took office, Customs and Border 
Protection have logged about 5 million border crossings. Because of 
COVID-19, there was a public health law in place, title 42, which we 
have talked about many times, which was applied by the Border Patrol to 
expel 2.4 million of those 5 million migrants.
  I know the numbers get a little tricky here. But at the same time 
Border Patrol has said they encountered 5 million migrants during the 
Biden administration, they also say that perhaps as many as 1.2 million 
migrants got away. In other words, they were seen on sensors or 
cameras, but the Border Patrol missed them or they simply evaded Border 
Patrol because either they were involved in some sort of criminal 
activity or they did not want to get detained because perhaps they 
didn't qualify for asylum.
  So up until last week, under title 42, the Border Patrol was able to 
quickly expel illegal migrants who had no legal basis to stay in the 
United States. Title 42 is gone, which means that nearly 50 percent of 
migrants whom Border Patrol actually encountered and were able to expel 
under that rule--they no longer are able to do that.
  It is nearly impossible to get an explanation from the Biden 
administration about where the remaining 2.7 million migrants are. What 
we do know is that the Biden administration is releasing an 
unprecedented number of these migrants into the interior of the United 
States.
  Some of them--if you have good vision, you can see the green part of 
these bars. These are people who are claiming asylum. It is really a 
rather small part of this total number. So far, in March, we are 
exceeding 100,000 migrants at the border.
  A relatively small number are claiming asylum. So what happened to 
the rest of them? Well, there is something called parole, p-a-r-o-l-e. 
We may think of parole as something that--if someone has been in prison 
and they get parole, but this is different. This is something that 
Customs and Border Protection does. They claim the authority to do this 
on a categorical basis simply to relieve the load on law enforcement 
officials and customs officials at the border.

[[Page S1696]]

  Effectively, what this means is even if people aren't claiming 
asylum--at least a small fraction we know would have an opportunity to 
present their case in front of an immigration judge, and a small 
fraction of the total number would perhaps be able to prove their right 
to asylum under the law.
  The Biden administration has said: We don't really care whether 
people are seeking asylum or not. We are going to release them into the 
interior of the United States using parole and tell them to show up at 
an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in a town near you and 
make arrangements for their case to be processed there at the local 
level.
  There have been some recent developments. In Florida, a Federal judge 
has now enjoined Customs and Border Protection's ability to use parole 
or, I should say, abuse parole by releasing mass numbers of migrants, 
perhaps never to be heard from again. The judge has said essentially 
that parole should be used on a case-by-case basis, not to relieve the 
load at the border because so many people are showing up.
  You know, charitably, maybe that is what Secretary Mayorkas means 
when he says the border is secure. In some sort of twisted way, he 
thinks 5 million people coming to the border and another 2.7 million of 
those people being released into the interior of the United States 
somehow means the border is secure. Well, not under any rational 
definition of ``border security'' is the border secure.
  So what is the Biden administration supposed to do? Back when 
President Clinton was in office, he signed into law an authority called 
expedited removal. This would allow the Border Patrol to remove people 
on an expedited basis. But it takes a little time, so historically what 
has happened is those people have been detained until their expedited 
removal is accomplished. But this administration has dismantled the 
detention facilities necessary to keep people while their expedited 
removal process is going forward. Instead, they are released.
  You heard people talk about catch and release. That is catch and 
release. That is the big hole in the bottom of the bucket through which 
this vast sea of humanity is flowing.
  Truth be told, there is a lot the administration doesn't know or 
simply isn't telling the American people about where these migrants are 
today.
  Recently, the New York Times did an investigative piece about some of 
the unaccompanied children who have been released by the Biden 
administration into the interior of the country and documented the fact 
that many of them are in positions where they are performing forced 
labor, violating child labor laws. Unable to protect themselves, unable 
to provide for themselves, they are simply being forced to work, in 
violation of child labor laws. They have no, apparently, adult 
supervision--no responsible adult supervision--to protect them.
  In a strange sense, that may be the least bad thing that can happen 
to some of these unaccompanied children. Others, I am sure, have been 
recruited into gangs, have been neglected, abused, sexually assaulted, 
sold into sex slavery. It just boggles the mind.
  I keep asking myself, what is it going to take? What has to happen 
before the Biden administration wakes up to its failures on the border 
and the human consequences associated with it?
  I haven't even mentioned--the Senator from Indiana did mention the 
fact that across these same borders, while this flood of humanity is 
coming across, Border Patrol is distracted or preoccupied with 
administrative tasks. So the drugs that have killed 108,000 Americans 
have come across those borders, including 71,000 last year from 
synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
  Well, now that title 42 has expired, the number of people coming 
across is going to skyrocket. I have been sort of strangely amused at 
some of the press reports that say: Well, the numbers weren't as bad as 
we expected. I think maybe that is what President Biden said--oh, it 
wasn't as bad as we expected.
  Well, these criminal organizations that transport migrants to the 
border and that also smuggle drugs into the United States are not 
stupid, and they realize that the eyes of the world--certainly of our 
country--were on the border to see, OK, now that title 42 has gone 
away, what is going to happen? Well, they just simply restricted the 
number of migrants they transported to the border in order to make it 
look like there was not a surge. But we already know that 10,000 
migrants a day are being encountered. One Border Patrol agent said he 
thought that would go up to 11,000 to 14,000 a day.

  The Biden administration has gone to great lengths not to secure the 
border but to make it easier for migrants to be released into the 
interior of the United States. Earlier this year, for example, the 
administration announced a new plan to address a specific subset of the 
border crisis--the way migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and 
Venezuela were treated. What the administration said is this: We are 
not going to secure the border. We are not going to prevent illegal 
immigration. We are actually going to confer legal status on 30,000 
migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela each month--30,000 
a month--and then we are going to take that out of the top number so it 
makes it look like we actually have less migrants coming into the 
country illegally.
  Well, 30,000 a month, 360,000 a year, without Congress's consultation 
or consent. We are a coequal branch of government. The President has no 
authority to do that on his own.
  Last week, the administration finalized a rule to funnel even more 
migrants into parole--which, as I said, is being abused; it is supposed 
to be done on a case-by-case basis--to release even more migrants into 
the interior of the country.
  It is interesting the way rules and laws are named here in Washington 
because frequently they are the opposite of what they claim to be. So 
the administration has issued a new rule called the circumvention of 
lawful pathways rule, framed as a way to promote orderly migration and 
ensure those who don't play by the rules are ineligible for asylum.
  In addition to the fundamentally false premise that these parole 
programs constitute lawful pathways--they don't--the rule is brimming 
with loopholes that were designed to give migrants a clear and easy 
path into the United States. It is a roadmap. All migrants have to do 
is claim that they are illiterate or say they experienced technical 
issues with the CBP One app that the administration wants them to use 
to schedule their appearance at the border. Well, the administration 
says they can still be paroled into the United States and given a work 
permit. Talk about a pull factor.
  You know, we hear a lot about the push factors of illegal 
immigration. Those are real--violence, poverty. We all understand that. 
People want a better way of life. But we admit--we naturalize or make 
American citizens out of 1 million migrants a year. But turning this 
process over to the criminal organizations and cartels that smuggle not 
only people but drugs into the United States has proven to be an 
absolute humanitarian disaster.
  By outlining broad exceptions that are easily gamed, the Biden 
administration has provided migrants and the cartels that exploit them 
with a playbook. They can make the dangerous journey to the border, 
show up at a port of entry without an appointment, say the magic words, 
and be released into the United States courtesy of the Biden 
administration; or they can cross between the ports of entry and claim 
to face an imminent and extreme threat to their life or safety in 
Northern Mexico and be waved into the United States as well.
  Day after day, the Biden administration is allowing more and more 
migrants to enter the United States despite the fact that the vast 
majority of these individuals have no legal basis to be here. At the 
same time, the administration is doing less and less to enforce the law 
and to remove those who have no valid asylum claims in the United 
States.
  As you can see here, this is--Immigration and Customs Enforcement is 
the Federal Agency responsible for removing people who have illegally 
come to the United States. As you can see, in fiscal year 2019, it was 
over a quarter of a million. In fiscal year 2020, it was just under 
200,000. In fiscal year 2021, it was just over 50,000. In fiscal year 
2022, it was about 75,000. So not only has President Biden opened the 
front door, he has closed the back door when it comes to removing 
people who have no

[[Page S1697]]

legal right to be here in the United States.
  Well, this isn't an accident. This is deliberate. This is a plan. And 
it is an outrage.
  This is all part of a deliberate effort. I have tried to figure it 
out. OK, maybe the Biden administration doesn't understand or maybe we 
just have a different interpretation of the law, but I have come to 
conclude that that is not true, that it can't possibly be true. So my 
only conclusion is that this is part of a deliberate plan: You let more 
people in, and you remove fewer people who cannot legally be present 
here in the United States.
  The circumvention of lawful pathways rule is dangerous, and it is not 
a serious effort to secure the border; it is a figleaf. And I will be 
introducing a Congressional Review Act resolution to strike it down.
  This rule is part of the Biden administration's shell game to conceal 
the unprecedented level of illegal immigration on their watch. Because 
of the loopholes, it will fail to deliver the serious consequences that 
the administration claims, and it will fail to deter people from making 
the long and dangerous journey to our border when they have no legal 
claim to enter our country.
  So I hope the Senate will soon vote to strike down this rule and send 
a clear message to President Biden that his job is to enforce the law 
as written.
  I agree with the Senator from North Dakota, Senator Hoeven, when he 
says the President has the tools. I mentioned expedited removal, which 
President Bill Clinton signed into law. The President just simply 
refuses to do the job he took an oath to do--to uphold and defend the 
Constitution and laws of the United States. He has no authority to 
rewrite the laws through executive actions or rulemaking, and I hope 
the Senate will say so when we vote on the congressional resolution of 
disapproval.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 
10 minutes prior to the scheduled rollcall vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I, too, rise to make known my concerns with 
the administration's decision to terminate the use of title 42 
authority to protect our borders. I particularly make this point at a 
time at which it is clear that what was to follow the use of title 42 
is not in place.
  I visited the southern border with the Senator from Texas, who was 
just speaking, in January. I had several additional visits to that 
border while title 42 was in place. It was useful and valuable for me 
to see the nature of the problem and the challenges over the last 
several years. But it is also true that I can see the consequences of 
what is taking place on our borders in my own home State of Kansas.
  When I was at the border, I talked with Federal law enforcement 
officials. They have risen to the challenge of apprehending and vetting 
and documenting hundreds of thousands of migrants. However, the 
situation at the southern border has been made more difficult for the 
DEA to interdict the cartels and drug smugglers and for the FBI to vet 
national security threats.
  Repealing title 42 without having a robust plan of action has left 
our law enforcement agents with a disastrous situation at the border. 
Our Border Patrol agents and officers are being asked to be caretakers, 
law enforcement, medical professionals, and so much more.
  The fact of the matter is that our country does not have operational 
control of the border, and it will continue to fail to do so if we 
continue down the current path.
  The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended more than 1 million migrants who 
crossed illegally between just October and March, and it detained more 
than 2.2 million migrants during all of fiscal year 2022. Agents have 
been averaging about 1,100 arrests a day this month at the El Paso 
sector, and on Wednesday of last week, more than 2,000 migrants were 
arrested in the one section alone. Often, we think of border challenges 
as being someone coming to take our jobs. Perhaps there is a component 
of that, but we ought to be focused on terrorism, national security, 
drugs, law enforcement, and human trafficking.
  Fentanyl seizures at the southern border increased 48 percent in 
April of 2022 compared to April of 2021. The situation at our southern 
border is a danger to our national security as border agents are pulled 
away to deal with the record number of migrants and are left without 
the manpower to try and stop drug trafficking and human trafficking.
  President Biden must act to ensure a stricter enforcement of our 
immigration laws, reinstate the construction of a wall or fencing in 
areas that are largely unprotected, and the administration must send a 
message loud and clear that our border is closed to unlawful entrants.
  The United States is a nation of migrants, and we are a nation of 
refugees, but we are also a nation of law and order. Migrants who are 
camping on the streets of El Paso, in scorching heat; mothers wading 
across rushing rivers, clinging to their infants; and girls caught by 
traffickers and cartels out in the desert are consequences of a 
disastrous border policy.
  The President's and his Secretary's handling of this crisis at the 
southern border is unacceptable. Congress must work together to deliver 
lasting solutions that secure our border, keep our communities safe, 
and ensure the humane treatment of people.
  Securing our southern border isn't a Republican or a Democratic 
issue. It isn't a Texas or an Arizona issue. It isn't just a U.S. or a 
Mexico issue. Every State is a border State, including my own of 
Kansas.
  If we truly want to help migrants, then we need to create a fair and 
humane asylum process, and we need to stop the illegal crossings at the 
southern border that undermine our laws and jeopardize our national 
security. Americans--Kansans--are tired of paying the cost of inaction 
to make any serious policy changes at the southern border.
  The administration has made it clear that it is unwilling to take the 
meaningful action necessary. While it is easy to criticize the 
administration, let me also say that it also means that it is up to 
this Congress, this legislative body, to work together to find 
solutions in this regard--solutions that ensure our national safety, 
establish a humane asylum process, and end the crisis at the southern 
border.
  I yield the floor.